I don’t know how long Yahoo has offered this service, but it looks like they don’t want to be left out of the answering game. Google recently announced their own answering service. This is a change for them to be competing directly. In the search engine arena, Google and Yahoo play nicely together. Yahoo uses Google’s search engine, while offering its core service of a human edited directory. Google uses dmoz.org for it’s directory and of course they use their own search technology. The fact that they don’t have to compete allows them to have a mutually beneficial relationship which allows them to concentrate on their main objectives and not get sidetracked on other tasks. Google has been much more clear on their role as a search engine. Yahoo has turned into a one size fits all type of site and I hope to see Google remain focused on their task instead of spreading themselves too thin.

When searching the web, the search engine only fights half the battle. After arriving at the site you found in the results, you have to figure how to navigate it unless the search engine found the exact page you wanted.

On my site I’ve implemented three navigational aids: a site map, a site search and a way to tell where you are within the site. The search gets used more than the site map but the navigation is used the most. Are site maps really that helpful then? Are webmasters wasting their time by creating them? Research has found (via) that “site maps allow the user to see the organization of the site more readily” so it appears that yes, site maps are helpful. Once you understand how the site is laid out, it’s much easier to find what you’re looking for.

Now for the Friday poem.

The night grows dark and silence comes,
A blanket of rest falls over the world,
Those that remain fight weary eyes,
Sleep floats softly in the air.

The turmoil inside continues to burn,
Searching, yearning and gasping for life,
Soft waves of sleep whispering close,
Overtaken at last by the darkened stare.